An investigation into the impact of outsourcing processes on corporate performance: The case of construction industry in Harare, Zimbabwe

Abstract

The operating environment has become highly turbulent and complex hence the call for businesses to come up with robust and relevant solutions that will ensure their survival and continuity in the long run, the ability to manage efficiencies and the need to reduce costs will be of paramount importance in order to produce their goods efficiently. Increasingly Corporates have begun to look at various strategies that will cushion them from high costs and enable them to realise the much needed returns. Outsourcing has been viewed as a corporate level strategy. In as much as companies were resorting to outsourcing as a panacea to their problems, not all of these organizations were realizing the intended benefits of outsourcing, some were even facing failures despite making the decision to outsource. It is on this premise that the research was conducted to investigate whether outsourcing processes improves corporate performance within the construction industry in Harare, Zimbabwe. The construction industry in Harare Zimbabwe has not been spared from the economic and political hardships challenges. The industry hedged the challenges through employing corporate level strategies such as fleet management outsourcing, quarry or mining outsourcing and production maintenance as a way of ensuring they provide high quality products at an affordable price in order to remain competitive and the preferred supplier by their customersthe possibility of these benefits are not yet fully exploited in Zimbabwe hence, this study aimed at investigating the impact of outsourcing processes on corporate performance in the construction Industry in Harare Zimbabwe. Quantitative research was utilised to collect data from respondents through self-administered questionnaires. The data collected was validated before analysis for relationships. The major result from this study revealed Outsourcing processes have a positive impact on Corporate Performance. Results also further showed that organisations that follow the criteria before making the decision to outsource perform better.